Joseph Prince - The Truth About Your Identity In Christ
This excerpt is from the sermon, Take Back Your Identity In Christ, preached on Oct 30, 2022
Who you identify yourself with? Do you identify yourself all the time? Today, we don't realize. Pastor Prince, what do you mean, "Identify yourself"? Very quick we are saying, "My father, you know, my grandfather had mental issues and all that. My father also have mental issues, you know, so no wonder I have mental issues". You just identified with the wrong Adam. Your Adam today is the Second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have accepted Him. That's why it's necessary for you to believe on Him, amen, and you become part of the new human race, amen. You have the Holy Spirit in you and you have a Man, listen, if I can say it like this.
And church, please understand, it's wonderful to see the deity of Christ, yes, and He is God, the second person of the triune Godhead. The Father, the Son (He's the Son) and the Holy Spirit, amen. It's good to see the deity. We need to acknowledge the deity. Any cult group, any branch of Christianity, so-called, all right, that negates the deity of Christ is not of God, okay? But on the other hand also, make sure that we don't go all the way here and treat Jesus like He's some sort of superhuman being, right? No, no, He is a human being in every way. He's a man in every way. That's why He came and He had to be born. He had to go through, and the Bible says, "He learned obedience by the things which He suffered". He grew up like any other boy. He grew up in his understanding as well. It wasn't like when He was in Mary's womb, He says, "Actually, I know everything. I know what this fallopian tube is all about". Did I say correct? Fallopian tube? "I know how this scientific process all works". I mean, He had to grow like every other child.
So there was a day, of course, as a child or somewhere as He's growing up He realized His true person and the purpose for which He came. That's why at 12 years old, He told His parents, "Didn't you know that I must be about My Father's business"? The awareness has come. The cross of Jesus Christ, the blood that He shed, that sinless blood, that holy blood, that royal blood that He shed on that cross. He's the only one without sin. He knew no sin, He did no sin, in Him is no sin. He was a perfect offering, amen, on that cross, amen. But He offered Himself as a man, a sacrifice, praise the Lord. He took your place that you might take His place. Are you taking His place? Amen, He took your place in curse that you might take His place in blessing.
Your biggest problem is not so much the sins that you have committed. It is more of this uprising of lust, this outbreak of temper. Sometimes you think that, "Wow, I've just come out from church, and I feel so good, and I cannot sin anymore," right? Then the next thing you know, you say something that you shouldn't have said. You lost your temper. It is this uprising that you feel inside, right? Is that your problem? If that's not your problem, I suspect you are born again, amen? Because only Christians don't like this kind of thing, amen. The world will say, "I feel nothing. It's all the same. In fact, I don't know what I am," right? Only you will know this is not you. This is not you. You don't like it.
And worse, sometimes it intrudes into your most private, holy moments when you are praying even. You think, "How can I think those thoughts"? Child of God, is this true? Let's encourage each other. Are you all having the same experience? Amen. Then it intrudes even in your sleep. The worst is your sleep, right? You feel like getting up, "I rebuke those thoughts. How can I think those thoughts"? I could be blasphemous thoughts, it could be bad thoughts, and you are shocked. It could be an evil spirit, all right, attacking and putting those thoughts. It's still from outside. But if it feels from inside, it's your flesh, that part of you that is not you. God never sees you in your flesh. Write that down somewhere. God never sees you in your flesh. God sees you in your spirit.
Romans 8 tells us, if Christ be in you, all right, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness, amen? And the Bible says, "You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit," Romans 8. You are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit. What does that mean? All that is true of the Second Adam is now true of you. As He is, so am I in this world. Not as He was. "As He was" is good enough. When Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee and all, oh, if I'm as He was, good enough. But no, God is referring to the Christ that has been enthroned and glorified at His right hand. As He is, so are we in this world. Are you listening?
Now, you are being elevated in your thinking. This is the kind of thinking that is holy thinking. It is thinking in line with the New Testament. It's thinking in line with the way God wants you to think, because God thinks that way. God thinks of you not as down there, you know? God thinks of you in His right hand in Christ. And sometimes God, when God's eyes see blood, God's eyes cannot see sin. If ever today in heaven...by the way, you know the blood of Jesus has been sprinkled in heaven? In the book of Hebrews, it says Jesus went in with His own blood. Now, listen, He rose from the dead. He conquered death as man because the work is finished, so death has no more claim. So He rose from the dead on the third day as what? Man. Listen, listen. And then God raised Him all the way up bodily, you know, in that new body that can never grow old, never decay, never die, amen. He went up to heaven and He was glorified. The Father welcomed Him and He sat down. And the Bible says in Hebrews the reason He sat down is not because He is God. That He always is. The Bible says, "Having purged our sins, He sat down".
If God just has justice and God says, "Because my justice cannot allow anyone with sin," and who is without sin? All of us have sinned. None of us will enter heaven. He will wipe all the human race out. He's got nothing to lose. But the Bible says God is love, amen? So if God is love, right... on the other hand, if God is love and God says, "Ha ha, never mind. Boys will boys, you know what? Just sweep everything under the carpet," like some of you when you sweep. Sweep everything under the carpet, all right? Once a week, I'll remove everything and vacuum, right? No, God doesn't do that. God has to do it justly. He has to do it in righteousness. He has to welcome sinful man in righteousness. Better still, He has to welcome sinful man. He has to welcome sinful man because His attributes must be glorified, and He will not be glorified if He doesn't welcome you.
So who can accomplish that? The cross. And that's why in Hebrews 10 it says, right, that once He has purged our sins by His body, we are all sanctified once and for all, amen? And He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever. "Having offered one sacrifice". Say, "One sacrifice for sins forever, sat down". Sat down on the right hand. Same as chapter 1 of Hebrews, amen. "Having purged our sins, sat down". Now, listen, the same person that bore the most sins in the entire history of man, there never was a person that bore more sins. There never was a person who can bear sins, lah, by the way. But if you talk about every filth, every uncleanness, the person that bore all these sins in His own body, amen, on the cross is Jesus Christ.
The fact that He can right now in His Resurrection walk into heaven by His blood and the Father glorifies Him, the Father says, "Sit on My right hand until I make Your enemies My footstool," that means what? Where are all the sins? Where are all the sins that He bore a few days ago? Where are all the sins? Whose sins are those sins? Whose sins are those? Whose sins are those sins? Come on. Hey, talk to me people, come on. Talk to me, come on. Whose sins are those that He bore? But where's it now? When He step into the Father's right hand and the Father says, "You are My Son. This day have I begotten thee. Sit on My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool. You're a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek". "Having purged our sins, He sat down". "Purged" means cleansed.
Are our sins cleansed? You know how we know? Jesus seated at the Father's right hand, amen. So what the devil wants to do is that the devil wants you to look at you on earth below in the flesh. And he knows he has every reason to point you to that because, man, every day we thought we are improving, you know? Spiritual growth is not by your efforts, you know? Oh, no more bad thoughts. No more bad words. No more bad temper. No more overeating. Singaporeans, no more overeating. No more glutton's corner. Gluttony is sin by the way. Today, where are the sins? Gone. That's why He can go in.
Listen, you must have the same mentality. Where there's remission or forgiveness of sins, where sins are put aside by His blood, we must have boldness to enter the holiest. Actually, listen carefully, it is not so much, it's writing to the Hebrews telling them, "Come near". For us, we are already near. That's why we are called the body of Christ. You know where is the body of Christ today? At the Father's right hand, the right center of the universe. We are the body of Christ. We are the many-membered body of Christ. To you, it's like this sounds so metaphorical, and so out there, and all that. With God, it is the reality. Your experiences every day is more like metaphorical and all that. This is the reality.
You see, the blood of Jesus has been sprinkled at the Father's right hand. Just now I said that, right? The Bible says Jesus went in with His own blood, not with the blood of bulls and goats like they did in the Old Testament. That's why they gotta reapply the blood, reapply the blood, reapply the blood, because their work is never finished. It's not sufficient. The blood of bulls and goats cannot wash away sins, but He went in once with His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. You see the word "eternal"? Redemption for us, okay? Is the blood still there? Then you have been perfected, and perfected without ceasing. Is the blood there? Then you are made righteous and you are righteous in God's eyes without ceasing. If ever you can remove the blood, and God's eye is on the blood, it's not on man.
Listen carefully, God's eye is not on man's sin. I'm talking about believers, okay? Not on your sin. God's eye is on the blood. If ever, which is not possible, okay? If ever God takes His eyes off the blood to look at your sin, God has just negate, slighted the blood of Jesus. God cannot do that. And that's why the Bible says, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin". Why? Because it has been imputed at the cross. That's why the Bible says the new covenant is all based on this clause. And the Holy Spirit has been sent, in Hebrews 10 it tells us, to be a witness to us. And we hardly hear this witness. And the witness is your sins and your lawless deeds are remembered no more.